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Saitenwürschtle at Daimler: insult or slander?

There was a row between Daimler shareholders at the AGM buffet, because one of them was packing a doggie bag of frankfurters, which have more names than I realized, and the Stuttgart one is Saitenwürschtle, Saite being their skin. This was in Berlin, where perhaps there was fear of missing out on the sausages. There were 5500 shareholders present, and 12500 frankfurters had been ordered.

It seems that the gentleman helping himself insulted the lady who objected, since she is charging him with Beleidigung.

This story has been widely reported in the British press too. The Guardian:

The row broke out when one man repeatedly went to the buffet and began wrapping up several sausages to take home, whereupon a female shareholder intervened to tick him off, resulting in a shouting match and the police being called.

Answering shareholder questions at the meeting, Daimler board chairman Manfred Bischoff said: “We had to call the police to settle the matter.”

A Daimler spokeswoman said it was a verbal altercation and the police were called to calm matters – because the female shareholder wanted to file a complaint for slander, and did so.

They call Beleidigung slander, but more information is needed. A big legal translation problem!

3 thoughts on “Saitenwürschtle at Daimler: insult or slander?”

Perhaps time for another workshop on comparative DE/EN defamation, Margaret, like your memorable one all of 20 years ago at ITI’s Annual Conference at Cambridge University.

Perhaps the male shareholder should have waited until right to the end of the meeting before bagging such meaty treats.

It seems such a shame to let the catering staff, as is often the case, walk off with all the left-overs – in my case, at an under-attended law conference one evening at the start of the week, about 100 mini-Punschkrapfen and Esterhazy-Törtchen.